Verse 916

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:

भावान्तरात्मकोऽभावो येन सर्वो व्यवस्थितः ।
तत्राश्वादिनिवृत्तात्मा भावः स(क?)इति कथ्यताम् ॥ ९१६ ॥

bhāvāntarātmako'bhāvo yena sarvo vyavasthitaḥ |
tatrāśvādinivṛttātmā bhāvaḥ sa(ka?)iti kathyatām || 916 ||

“Inasmuch as all ‘inexistence’ has been held to be of the nature of some other ‘existence’,—please say what that ‘inexistence’ is which is of the nature of the ‘negation of the horse (and otehr non-cows)’?—[Ślokavārtika-Apoha 2]—(916)

 

Kamalaśīla’s commentary (tattvasaṃgrahapañjikā):

Question:—How is it the same thing asserted in different words?

Answer—[see verse 916 above]

“Since all ‘Inexistence’, in the four forms of ‘Previous Inexistence’ and the rest, has been found to be of the nature of existence’;—as declared in the following words—‘while the Curd is not present in the Milk, it is called previous Inexistence; when the Milk is not present in the Curd, it is called

Inexistence per Destruction; the absence of the House, etc. in the Cow is called mutual Inexistence; when portions of the head of the Hare are flat and devoid of a hard protuberance, it is said to be absolute Inexistence, in the shape of the Hare’s Horn... These thus are not so many kinds of non-entity. Hence Inexistence must be an entity’ (Ślokavārtika: Abhāva, 2-4 and 8).—What is meant is that it is Milk itself which, while not present in the form of the Curd, comes to be known as the ‘Previous Inexistence’ (of the Curd); and similarly with other forms of Inexistence.—Thus Inexistence being only a form of Existence, what is that Inexistence which is meant by you to be the ‘Negation of the Horse, etc.’; please tell us this.”—(916)